This invention relates generally to images used in medical applications, and more particularly to methods and apparatus for improving usability of images for medical applications.
As a patient breathes, organs move within the chest and abdominal cavity of the patient. If images are acquired while the patient is breathing anatomical information in a slice of image of the patient may be blurred and not clinically useful. Multiple acquisitions and short breathe holds are used to determine organ motion. Multiple acquisitions and short breathe holds are also used to obtain images with little or no respiratory motion. The extent of organ motion during a respiratory cycle is not easily determinable in a consistent manner. As a result, an organ, which should be treated, is sometimes not treated with a maximum amount of radiation or surrounding organs are exposed to unneeded radiation due to respiratory motion of the patient. Accordingly, it would be desirable to be able to collect data while the patient is breathing and then sort data to the same point in the respiratory cycle thereby freezing motion which would otherwise blur anatomical information in the data. It would also be desirable to provide information about the location of an organ in relationship to other organs at a point in the respiratory cycle.